


Talk to the Hand

by unholy_this



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Whump Without Plot, Wrist Pain, it's really pretty simple and light, that's all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 10:50:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20338906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unholy_this/pseuds/unholy_this
Summary: Killian gets trapped... and cold.No plot, just some hurt and comfort :P





	Talk to the Hand

“Come on Killian! Don’t stay too far behind!”

Killian followed Emma’s words after taking a last look behind his back. This cursed place had thrown them no less than five traps in the last few minutes. If it weren’t for Emma and Regina’s magic, they would have been doomed by now.

They kept running until they reached a wall. There was a big opening in the ceiling, low enough for them to climb through. This place made no sense structurally, but if they’d understood one thing while there was that the higher they went the safer. They helped each other up, Killian staying last. He could easily grab the ground above and hoist himself up but David and Emma just offered their hands to help him. Killian took a deep breath and raised his hand.

He didn’t really see it happening. One moment he was stretching his hand to them and could see them, the next he was in complete darkness and something solid was around his wrist. He took a few quick breaths before flexing his fingers. It felt like it worked, and then a hand was touching his - it was Emma’s. He immediately grabbed onto her, his feeling of touch growing stronger by the lack of sight.

“Emma?” he shouted. The lack of an echo in the room made his skin crawl. Wasn’t it supposed to be a big room? What kind of magic was taking place there? “Emma!”

Emma’s hands shook his hard. Then he felt a pair of lips touching it, and a soft vibration being transferred to his hand through them.

She was trying to talk to him too.

“Emma,” he said softly this time, his breath growing faster.

Her one hand let go and the other turned his palm up. He felt her fingers tracing letters on his palm. H... E... A...

_Hear us?_

He smiled slightly when she traced even the question mark. He shook his index finger, then pointed stiffly at wherever he imagined Emma was.

_No_

“Bloody hell.”

He tried to shake his hand off the material around his wrist, but it seemed unyielding, and he swallowed hard. If he stayed for far too long there he was running a great risk of losing his only hand.

_U ok?_

He raised his thumb and picked up her hand again.

He then raised his hook in front of him and gasped when he realized that the wall that was in front of him before was now gone. He waved at the air with his arm and legs but he didn’t hit anything.

A shiver ran down his spine but he had the strangest feeling it wasn’t because of fear.

Emma started tracing letters on his palm again.

_Well yet u out_

“We’ll get you out,” he told himself. He turned his hand to grab hers tightly. When he felt it was warmer than his he finally realized why he’d shivered before. His toes were starting to get cold, and when he touched his hook gently on his skin, the metal was growing cold as well.

It gave him the motivation to trace the word _Hurry _on her hand before letting go. Emma kissed his hand and then she was gone. He felt a soft rumbling around his wrist, probably magic trying to work its way through, but nothing happened. Emma’s hands touched his again.

_U ok?_

He raised his thumb again.

_We’ll try again_

He nodded without thinking and shivered. It was getting really cold really fast. He tried to rub his arm on his side to warm himself a little, but when it did nothing he started walking on the spot. He moved his head around, trying to catch anything, but he indeed was in complete darkness. No matter how much he stayed there his eyes couldn’t adapt. He shivered again and tried to remember what he could about hypothermia. He knew that exhaustion and lack of coordination would come soon, so he kept moving as much as he could to stay warm.

Then he remembered the flashlight he had in an inner pocket. With a shiver, he put his hook in it and slowly dragged the flashlight out, bracing it against his body. With slow, careful movements - he couldn’t see a thing and more cold was already settling in - he grabbed it with his teeth.

Good. Now what? He felt more rumbling from above and his hand slightly going numb.

Biting down on the flashlight hard enough to keep it in place but not damage it, he felt around with his hook for the switch.

More rumbling, but still nothing.

He found the switch, and desperately fumbled with his hook in effort to turn the flashlight on. He was starting to shiver whole now, the worst symptoms wouldn’t take too long to come. It was so bloody cold…

Then his hook finally pressed on the switch.

And the ground outright _disappeared _from beneath him.

Killian screamed as he fell slightly, the flashlight slipping from his mouth and falling, falling, falling... until its light disappeared into nothing. He didn't hear the sound of it dropping.

He started panting, the freezing air making his throat hurt as he pointlessly looked up to see nothing. He was literally hanging from his only hand, stuck inside the ceiling. His wrist was hurting even more now as it supported his full weight, and he felt stings of pain travel up his arm, or down, to be more specific.

He felt panic claw its way in. He’d seen, heard about torture techniques that included such suspension… and he knew his time was very limited if he wanted to get out of there safe. It would take less than half an hour for his hand to start rotting from cut circulation.

“Help!” he cried desperately. His voice was broken from the cold and the shivering.

He tried to take normal breaths, but they were becoming too shallow, and every time he breathed it felt like freezing knives were going down his throat. Exhaustion was making his limbs feel even heavier…

No. He wouldn’t go down like this. He moved his free arm, trying to stick his hook in the ceiling. The ceiling was hard, unyielding, but he tried as much as he could until he collapsed, too weak and cold to do anything else.

The tears in his eyes were starting to freeze before they even fell. He thought he felt someone touch his hand, but it was too numb for him to be sure. Emma was maybe trying to communicate with him again, but even if he had the energy to, he didn't have the will to lie to her that he's okay.

By now he’d stopped shivering and the only thing he could think was that it was a bad sign. And if the cold didn’t kill him right then, he would probably lose his only hand. If only the others saved him in time…

It made no difference, but he still closed his eyes.

He was glad he did, as a few seconds later a bright fire appeared in front of him. He couldn’t understand what it was, but it circled around him, then disappeared, and then they were pulling him up.

Grunting weakly, he squeezed his eyes shut when the bright light from above entered his vision.

* * *

“Oh my God! Killian!”

“Come on, pull him up. We have to take that thing off from around his wrist.”

Emma touched Killian’s face. “He’s cold as ice!” His face was pale, lips and ears had turned blue and he looked dizzy, his eyes closed tight.

“Emma? I need your help to remove the… whatever that is from his wrist,” Regina said.

Emma looked at the big circle of concrete, or whatever, around Killian's wrist. She’d set David’s sword on fire and he’d cut a big circle around Killian's hand, so now they were dealing with a huge bracelet that was possibly cutting off his circulation.

It seemed that once off its source it was weak, because with one flick of her wrist it broke in pieces, releasing Killian’s hand.

“Killian? Can you hear me?”

Killian only mumbled nonsense.

“He’s hypothermic. He needs to go to the hospital,” David said.

Emma simply took Killian in her arms and held him close, trying to warm him with her body heat. She shivered at the cold feel but sighed when she saw the awful redness in his hand recede.

“I can’t heal that much. Do you think you can?” Regina said.

Emma shook her head. She was too upset to focus on her magic now anyway.

“We have to use the bean. This place is a nightmare. We didn't get any closer to defeating our guy, and we’re lucky Hook didn’t get any worse.”

“Don’t just think about Storybrooke. Think about the hospital. We don’t have much time,” Emma said right before they jumped in the portal.

Nurses were all over them only seconds after they arrived. They took him away on a gurney covered in blankets. Emma stood where she was in shock.

It was too much of a reminder of him being taken away in a similar way, only that time the blanket had been completely covering his lifeless body…

David understood and approached her, offering a hug and she took it.

They didn’t wait long. Whale appeared only minutes later.

“He’ll be fine. He’s on warm fluids and under lots of blankets. His arm may hurt for a few days but he will recover fully.”

“Can I see him?”

“He’s only slightly disoriented, so it’s better if he stays for the night but you can stay with him.”

She couldn’t stop thinking about warming him with her body heat again - for strictly health reasons, of course - as they walked to his room. She sighed in relief when she saw him again. He looked weak, yes, but most of the colour had returned to his face, his lips and ears now a simple pale instead of blue.

“S-Swan,” he said softly as he saw her.

“Hey. You’re gonna be okay.” She touched his face, shivering at the still cold feel.

“I know. They t-told me. I’m sorry you h-had to b-bring me h-h-here.”

“Hey, it wasn’t your fault. That place was hell.”

“Quite a c-cold one, th-then,” Killian said with a smile.

Without a second thought, Emma took off her coat and slipped under the covers, touching her body to his as much as she could. She shivered.

“That’s not n-neces-ssary, l-love. The doc-ctor said-”

“That I can stay here with you. I was only seeing your hand for what felt like hours. I want to feel as much of you as possible, and if that helps get you warmer sooner that’s even better. So shush. I can hear the innuendo coming from miles away.”

Killian simply smiled, managing to make it a dirty one and closed his eyes, burying his face in the crook of her neck.


End file.
